Spikers Need Rally To Get Past Danes

Down 11-7 in the fifth and final game, the Harvard men's volleyball team cashed in on superior five-power to rally back for a five-game victory over a scrappy Albany State squad last night at the IAB.

Harvard emerged from its bout with a determined Great Dane squad with a 15-2, 15-17, 15-8, 11-15, 15-13 win.

In the last game, sophomore David Twice cannoned from outside while freshman Jon Ross filled the middle as the Crimson outscored the Great Danes 8-2 to escape Albany's upset bid with a 15-13 victory. With the Danes serving from a 12-11 edge, Ross spotted a weakness in the Albany defense and dropped a dink into the hole, giving Harvard the serve Ross then hammered in two quick points that pulled the Crimson to its first lead in the game.

Twite soon took over, blasting the ball cross court and through double blocks to give Harvard the match.

Harvard Coach Mike Palm praised his team for its comeback but said the late rally shouldn't have been necessary Pointing to Harvard's fast start. Palm said the Crimson had the potential to win in three straight.

After jumping out to an easy first-game victory, the spikers leapt to a 9-2 advantage in the second stanza. Harvard relaxed and Albany took over. To steady cries of "Go, Go, Go" from the Albany beach, the Danes did just that, knotting the game at 12 and battling to a 17-15 decision.

After clicking in game three, the Crimson napped again. As Albany chants continued to mount and Dane spikes began to fall in, the Crimson back-row passing fell apart. Time and again the important digs would miss, forcing the setters too close to the net. Bad passes led to poor sets, and poor sets led to impotent spikes.

Splotchy

"They tend to have steaks where they lose confidence in their ball-handling ability," Palm said of his charges, explaining that passing, is a simple technique which "relies a lot on confidence and the flow of the game."

Jon Tanaka's back-row play in game five reversed the downslide in Harvard's passing. Tanaka directed the ball straight to the setters, enabling them to set up the decisive spikes by Ross and Twite.

The Crimson will have to pull its game together quickly for its Saturday bouts at West Point in the Eastern College Volleyball League Open, the tournament used to determine playoff seeding.